Common filter presses to be installed at Leather Complex

Deepkamal Kaur

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 14

Coming as a big relief for the owners of tannery units at the Leather Complex here, the interim committee set up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court has finalised the setting up of common filter presses for sludge collection. 

The common facility, when it becomes functional, will help the owners get their drums unsealed and start full operation. A meeting to finalise the procedure for the same for compliance of the court orders was convened by the chairman of the interim committee-cum-Deputy Commissioner KK Yadav today. The tannery owners had long been demanding that instead of individual presses, a common facility be installed, the cost of which they would collectively bear. 

In the last hearing on the matter, judges Surya Kant and Raj Mohan Singh had asked the interim committee to ensure that the cost is exclusively borne by the industry concerned. The installation exercise shall be completed in a time-bound manner under the direct supervision of GS Majithia, Chief Environmental Engineer-cum-Vigilance Officer, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB). 

The committee has also been asked to ensure that the industries concerned remove the dry sludge lying in the CETP and individual units as early as possible but not later than two weeks and that necessary directions be issued to those responsible for it. It also asked the committee to take immediate punitive action against those defying the norms.

“The removal of the dry sludge from the CETP or individual units shall be a continuous process until the filter presses are installed and made functional to the satisfaction of the Vigilance Officer,” the orders state.

The court has also permitted the committee to obtain the viewpoint of industries, i.e. 85 per cent of the units that had 95 per cent of the total turnover and had approached the interim committee.  “The interim committee shall not associate with any individual member in the decision-making process,” the court specified. A meeting with the tannery owners is scheduled the day after.

The court had also made CETP contractor Ramky Infrastructure Ltd a respondent and asked its CEO to remain present in the court on January 18, the next date of hearing. The court directed it to perform its obligation as contractor to the satisfaction of the Vigilance Officer, PPCM, and the chairman of the interim committee, failing which appropriate action would be taken against it after hearing its Chief Executive at the next date. 

It also asked the tanneries that have not obtained the consent of the PPCB to apply within two weeks, failing which the board has been authorised to seal the premises.